Data communication networks, such as a telecom network (telephone network), the internet or a private data network, support the establishment of point to point connections between network nodes. Such a point to point connection provides a fixed bandwidth on a (semi-)permanent basis for communication of data between the network nodes.
To increase the robustness of such networks against failure of connections, it is known to establish more than one connection between a pair of communicating nodes in parallel. The same data may be sent from one of the nodes to the other along all these connections to ensure that the data arrives even if one of the connections fails. Similarly, data may be sent along one of the connections and rerouted only if that one of the connections fails. Thus, the network can be made robust against failure of a connection at the price of establishing additional connections between the pair of nodes.